Shanghai Theatre Academy

Our project creates a vibrant, state-of-the-art campus for this renowned dramatic arts training and performance university in Shanghai. Designed in collaboration with a world-class team of consultants including Theatre Projects Consultants, Nagata Acoustics, and Sasaki Associates (Landscape Design), the Academy is envisioned as an integrated part of the riparian garden park to the south—providing a pastoral landscape environment with low-density buildings. A central spine, the “Academic & Performance Arts Street,” weaves through the site, maximizing interaction between the various elements and creating a place with 24/7 activity and identity. Pedestrian paths and view corridors reach out from this lively internal street like the branches of a tree, particularly toward the canal on the west which is reinforced as a pleasant promenade with landscape and water features. The various theatres and performance spaces are equipped with the most advanced technological systems—including optimal sound, communications and internal production video capability. The audience and stage areas share an infrastructure of power and cableways to handle complex television or sound broadcast, recording, video-conferencing and satellite/web uplinks.